The Dimensional Doctors 1 of 3: She Was Fantastic
by Malin-Pedersen
Summary: A box filled with pictures is found and the Doctor is finally challanged by Rose into talking about his past and one person who he could never forget. 9th DoctorOC but not a Marysue...i think R
1. There's a lot On His Mind

**This is my first ever Doctor Who fanfic but I don't care lol. This, like all my fanfics, is a work in progress and I will probably go back and forwards to change certain things as the story goes on. This is about a time when the 9th Doctor got trapped on earth in this time because the TARDIS was having a break meaning that he couldn't go anywhere and during a lonely night Rose asks him what he's thinking about leading to him telling her this story after she dose a bit of snooping : P Set after Father's Ship.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately I myself don't own anything that has to do with Doctor Who and both the Doctor and the TARDIS are trademarks of the beautiful people at the BBC.. **

**Please read and Review Love Kimmy B**

The Dimensional Doctors 1 of 3: She was Fantastic

Chapter 1: There's a lot On His Mind

Every room and floor of the TARDIS was silent and all was dark as Rose slowly and sleepily opened her eyes. She rubbed at them and yawned, allowing herself to wake up gradually. Rose looked round her small room aboard the alien time craft and for a split second thought that she was back home in her flat. It was only when she had woken up properly that she realised where she was and what had gone on in the last few weeks. She remembered now that she was on the TARDIS, was travelling through time with a guy named "The Doctor" and that he had parked the blue police call box right smack, bang in the middle of Leister Square in London, which he had thought was very funny.

Rose pulled herself up so that she was sitting up right in her bed and gazed around the room. To look at her quarters you would think that you where in fact back on Earth in the year 2005 and standing in Rose's own room in the apartment where she lived with her Mum. The Doctor had morphed the once boringly plain alien living quarters into the exact replica of her brightly coloured and interesting bedroom on Earth, in order to help her feel more comfortable and more at home. The Doctor had done this because he knew how she might feel having to spend night after night sleeping in a very strange and boring room. He knew because when he had first started using the TARDIS he had no idea how to work it's morphing capabilities or that it even had any and so spent many months sleeping in a room that was the complete opposite to what he wanted.

Rose had thought that it had been very sweet of him to do such a thing and it did make her feel better when she got ready for bed at night. She had grown quiet fond of the man in the last few weeks that she had been travelling with him and although she didn't know it, he felt that same fondness. It was nice to have someone besides the TARDIS to talk to when he felt a bit lonely or just wanted to have a bit of a chat.

Rose sat there in her bed and sighed. She loved travelling backwards and forwards in time and space along with going to places that she had never in her wildest dreams have imagined and with a person who she considered her best friend. It was amazing, around every corner there was always a new surprise…but all the while she couldn't help but think of her Mum and Mickey and what they where doing now.

Her Mum had been so upset when she had come back almost a year on from when she had left and Rose couldn't help but feel that she was betraying her Mum by not telling her where she had been. But in time Jackie Tyler had come to understand that even thought her daughter might not always be in the safest place, she was in a place that she wanted to be and that it was her own choice to make which helped Rose to feel less guilty about what she was doing and leaving her Mum behind. Rose decided not to think about it anymore as it was making her miss home even more than she usually did.

After a minute or two of wriggling about she finally managed to settle down so that she could get a little more sleep before the Doctor inevitably would come into her room, bouncing about like a child who had eaten way too much sugar and tell her to get up. Rose's head was just about to hit the pillow again when she suddenly could hear the sound of soft footsteps moving backwards and forwards beyond her bedroom door.

Rose sat up once again in her bed. She listened intently as the footsteps moved up and down the corridor, as if transplanting something from one point to the other. She slipped out from underneath the covers of her bed and reached for the vase that for some reason was lying on the floor. She gripped it tightly in her hand as she made her way to the door slowly, cautiously. Ever since her encounter with the Gelth in the year 1869 she had been wary of strange noises. Rose knew that there where no gas pipes anywhere in the TARDIS but that didn't mean that her over active imagination couldn't go mad and scare her half to death.

She grasped so tightly to the vase that her knuckles were turning white as she raised it above her head. Her heart began to pound inside her chest. Her breathing became harsh and ragged as she reached the door. Her hand was mere centimetres from the doors handle when she collected all her courage and took a deep breath. Rose flung open the door and yelled out as she brought the vase down over…the Doctor's head.

He fell to the floor, his sonic screwdriver in hand, after Rose had brought down vase over the Doctors' head so hard that she succeeded in knocking him out cold. At first the young blonde had smiled triumphantly to herself and thought of the praise she would get from the Doctor for stopping this intruder, but her smile disappeared when she finally realised that it was the Doctor who she had attacked without warning. "Oh my God! Doctor!" cried Rose, kneeling down to check if he was still alive. "Why dose this sort of thing happen to me?" moaned Rose to herself as she checked the Doctor's pulse and found that his two heart beats where still there and still strong. She jumped a little when a muffled moan came from the Doctor and he rolled over onto his back.

He winced as the back of his now bruised head touched the cold, hard floor beneath him. The Doctor's eyes opened and looked up at Rose. To him she was just a very misty blur but as his vision began to clear he could clearly see the young, 19 year-old human looking down on him. "Oh it would be you wouldn't it!" he muttered sarcastically as he tried to focus on everything around him, "What in the blue blazes of Hell did you think you were doing?" the Doctor moan up at her while bringing his hand up behind his head to try and rub the pain away, "This is going to hurt tomorrow."

"I'm so so sorry. I woke up cause I heard footsteps in the corridor and I didn't know it was you." Rose helped the Doctor to his feet, which on her part took some great effort because he was 6 feet tall and heavier than she was…you do the math. After heaving the Doctor onto his feet Rose suddenly realised that none of the hall lights where of which was strange.

One of the things that Rose understood about the TARDIS was that it didn't like to use up energy when it wasn't needed and due to this the lights only came on in the corridors if someone was physically in them. It was sort of like the motion detectors that were on the garden lights that people put near their garages or back gardens so that if they had to go out when it was dark then their movements would activate the lights. Well the TARDIS was like that only the lights didn't activate when they detected movement but when they detected a living bio sign coming towards them. Due to the fact that both the Doctor and Rose were very much alive, it was weird that none of the lights were on, leaving them in darkness besides from the faint light that was coming through the open door of the Doctor's quarters.

Rose guessed that maybe the bulb had one or something or maybe that the bio sign sensors where powered down and a button needed to be pushed to turn them back on again. Rose stretched her arms out to try and search for such a button so that she could check the Doctor's head in the light to make sure that it was ok. After a moment or two of searching Rose heard an exasperated sigh coming from the Doctor as he reached out to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to his side. He knelt down to pick up his sonic screwdriver off of the floor and then pointed it up towards the ceiling. After fiddling around with it for a few moments and a bit more exasperated sighing, the Doctor finally found the right setting and put the sonic screwdriver into action.

A soft humming sound could be heard as if something above them was heating it's self up in preparation for springing into life. All of a sudden the lights came on, but the light was not coming from the usual over-head lighting but from an assortment of old Victorian, Art Nuevo, Edwardian and Tiffany lamps lined the hall in a beautifully warm and golden glow.

Rose looked up and down the hall, gazing at all the different lamps, "Erm…these weren't all here when I went to bed. Actually there weren't any here when I went to bed." She said, very puzzled.

"I know," said the Doctor as he let go of her arm and went over to a very large, beautifully coloured Victorian lamp and using his fingers to rub off a little dirt on the coloured glass, "A long time ago I had the TARDIS decorated in a gothic style so it was very dark and so needed a lot of lamps to light my room and the control room properly. Well when I got bored of the gothic I moved all the lamps into my room but it's getting a bit crowded in there so I decided to move them out here." The Doctor looked around him, very pleased with what he had achieved.

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. He's always gibbering about something isn't he, can't stay still for a second…dose he ever sleep? Rose wondered to herself as she looked around the hall. The walls were no longer gold and beige but were now rich in vibrant colours of emerald green and deep browns. Its style was also Victorian like most of the lamps that lined that hallway on the floor and on small tables. Under their feet there were polished oak floor that looked like it had been there for an age and above their heads there was wonderfully pristine white plaster ceiling with cherubs and oak leaves moulded around the boarders. It reminded Rose somewhat of her great-grannies downstairs hall that she used to play in when she was little and was visiting her with her mum. Rose stood there in a daydream until she was brought back into reality by the sound of the Doctor's voice, babbling on. He so likes to show off, thought Rose as she turned to the Doctor who now had his arms folded and was in his "acting all smarmy and clever" stance.

"I can morph the interior of the TARDIS into any shape or form that I like and right now I'm in a sort of antiquey mood and so came up with this." The Doctor unfolded his arms and gestured in front of him, "I was just finishing it off and was away to go and make a few upgrades to the TARDIS's main control systems but that was until you bashed me over the head while screaming like a banshee." Rose looked back at the Doctor again and as she suspected he had that wide, bright and almost smug smile plastered onto his face as if he was secretly telling Rose what an idiot of an ape she had been.

"Hey I said I was sorry and anyway you got what you deserved for sneaking about the place in the middle of the night with no lights on." Rose smiled defiantly back at the Doctor and her smile grew as his faded. "I was not sneaking! This is my ship and you're only here because-"

"Because you asked me to come along?" interrupted Rose, still smiling when the Doctor began to get flustered at the fact that she was doing a good job at beating him at his own game.

"Yes but that isn't the point Rose Tyler-" said the Doctor, pointing the sonic screwdriver at her before he was once again interrupted.

"Well what is the point then Doctor?" she was teasing him now just for the pure pleasure that she got out of it and he knew it all too clearly. Rose was now radiating arrogance but it was just in the playful way that it always was between the two of them. She had her arms and legs crossed over each other and was leaning up against the doorframe of her room, one eyebrow arched.

"The point is…erm…the point is…AH! The point is, is that this is my ship and over there is my room," stated the Doctor, pointing towards his own door, "and that through there," he said, pointing towards the control room of the TARDIS, "is my ships nervous system which if you will excuse me needs a little TLC and upgrading." Rose stood up straight as he spoke and felt a little ashamed as he left her standing there in her Hello Kitty PJ's as he stormed down the corridor towards the stairs and disappeared from her sight. As much as Rose did feel sorry that she had annoyed him she couldn't understand why he had reacted to it in the way that he did. She had teased no more than she usually would and he would always take it in good humour and tease her right back but today it was completely different. Something was bothering him big time and for once it wasn't her. Rose decided to give him a few minutes to cool while she got dressed and then she would go and find the Doctor and find out what he was thinking about.

Well that the revised version of my first chapter and I want to say thanks to Abs for the review and as you can see the paragraphs are more broken up now :D


	2. Through The Dark

**This is the second chapter of this story, which I hope you are going to like because I did like writing it. Now I just want to tell you that this chapter is a lot longer than the last one and there isn't much dialogue going on between anyone for a while. This is normal for me :p I like to set a scene before I get into much dialogue but I do promise that I've tried to even it out so that it's a bit easier on the eyes :P Anyway Enjoy! Read and please review.**

**P.S I want to say that the reference to the "hedgehogs and grasshoppers" is out of one of the Doctor Who 9 books called Winner Takes All so for those of you who have read them then you'll know what their on about but if not then I suggest that you read it because it is amazing! **

**Also the symbol on the box is the Eye of Harmony, I just thought I let you know because I found it really hard trying to describe it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the things to do with the lovely Doctor and both the Doctor and the TARDIS are trademarks of the spiffy people down in London at the BBC. The character Emma Owens though is mine and comes completely from my own sick little imagination. Also I do not own anything connected with KT Turnstall and the song Through The Dark along with Good Charlotte and the song Ghost of You. Danke for not sueing me! **

**Abs: I agree that the paragraphs were a bit to big so I went and revised chapter one so I hope that it's better and I've made this one like that as well so I hope that it's easier for you to read :D**

**Hobgoblin: Thanks so much for the lovely review. The second I got your review I went straight back to writing. I've made it a great big chapter so I hope that I give you loads more lovelyness for you to read :D**

The Dimensional Doctors 1 of 3: She was Fantastic

Chapter 2: Through The Dark

Rose made her way slowly towards the door that led into the control room so that she could listen out to see what kind of mood the Doctor was in now. As much as she did like the guy, he could act like a complete child now and again. He often reminded her of Mickey when he did this but Rose was grateful that he wasn't nearly as bad as him. Rose stood in front of the door and suppressed the urge to put her ear up against it to hear what was going on, on the other side of it better. All she could hear was the seemingly random beeps and clicks along with the familiar humming of the TARDIS and the buzzing sound of the sonic screwdriver over it.

There was one sound that she hadn't expected to hear and that was the sound of KT Turnstall's voice singing Through The Dark. Rose had absolutely no idea that there was a CD player on board of the TARDIS but if she had known sooner then she would have taken a completely separate bag filled with her CD's. It was either that or go to Virgin Megastores and buy all the ones she needed. I wonder if there is a Virgin Megastore on Jupiter9, pondered Rose to herself.

Along with the music being surprising there was a second sound that Rose found almost disturbing it was that strange! Never in a million years did Rose ever expect to hear what she was and that was the Doctor singing softly to himself:

"As I walk away  
I look over my shoulder  
To see what I'm leaving behind.  
Pictures of puzzles  
And wishes on eyelashes fade.

Oh, how do I show  
All the love inside my heart  
For this is all new  
And I'm feeling my way through the dark."

His voice was rather deep when he sang but that was probably because he was singing so softly and so low. Rose could barely hear him above the background noise and his voice was just loud enough for her to make out the words:

"I used to talk  
With honest conviction  
Of how I predicted my world  
Gonna leave it to stargazers  
Tell me what your telescope says.

Oh, what is in store for me now  
It's coming apart  
For this is all new  
And I'm feeling my way through the dark."

Rose listened a little while to him singing with her ear mere centimetres away from the door. He actually didn't have a bad voice…for a 900-year-old Time Lord.

"Trying to find a light on somewhere  
Trying to find a light on somewhere  
I'm finding I'm falling  
In love with the dark over here.

Oh, what do I know, I don't care  
Where I start  
For my troubles are few  
As I'm feeling my way through the dark  
Through the dark  
Yes I'm finding my way through the dark."

There was a pause as the song finished and relative silence came into the room. Rose couldn't put her finger on it but there was something about his voice that sounded so sad, so…regretting, as if the song linked him to something or someone in his life that had gone wrong. Rose reached for the door handle and walked as quietly as she could into the large room, trying to close the door behind her without making any sound. The young girl looked about the gigantic room where all of the TARDIS's major functions and goings on were approved, cancelled and created not only by the Doctor but also by the TARDIS herself.

Thankfully the music was loud enough that Rose could move about the room without being heard by the Doctor. She walked towards the control panel in the centre of the room, looking around to see where he was. Rose eventually found him, well, almost stepped on him more like. The Time Lord was sprawled out on his back, almost underneath the grated floor, in a spot he usually was when making changes and adjustments. His head and shoulders were hidden from view by one of the under-panels of the controls, which had been opened up, spilling wires and connectors over him. Rose guessed that what ever upgrades or repairs that the Doctor had to do then it meant that he needed to crawl a little way into the workings of the main controls so that he could get at it.

A faint green light emanated from the open hatch and the usually soft and gentle hum of the TARDIS could be heard but much more clearer and louder. Rose leaned against the controls right beside him, listening to the music and the Doctor singing again. It was a tune that Rose recognised as being Good Charlotte:

"The ghost of you is all that I have left  
It's all that I have left of you to hold.  
I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me  
And nothing left of what we were at all."

The Doctor had stopped singing and Rose couldn't hear the sonic screwdriver anymore. He was just lying there, doing nothing and listening to the music. It was rare for him to do so as he always liked to be on the move, doing something, keeping his mind off of things that bothered him in general. Such as how Rose seemed to think that since he had said no to Mickey coming with them that the Doctor despised the boy and hadn't actually offered for him to come with them. Much to popular belief he did actually like Mickey the Idiot even if it was only a very tiny, minuscule, little bit that was buried deep, deep down.

He never knew why it bothered him but it just did and so it was just another tiny problem that was put to the back of his mind.

After a while the song finished as well as the CD and silence fell upon them again. It wasn't very long before the Doctor came out from under the panel and finally noticed Rose standing there. He stared up at her and she stared back, a small, faint smile fleeting across her lips before she looked down at the ground. The Doctor looked very surprised to see her standing there when he had gotten up. After he had stormed off he had guessed that she would be angry to. He thought that she would have stayed in her PJ's, gone back to her bed and have gone back to sleep like she did most of the time.

"How's your head?" asked Rose, looking back up from the ground and giving him a sympathetic smile. In the hall earlier on Rose hadn't had the chance to get a proper look at his face but she began to worry as she looked at him now in the clear light of the room.

His skin seemed pale and there wasn't very much colour in his cheeks which ordinarily were a darker pink colour but they were just as pale as the white t-shirt that she was wearing. He had dark circles under his eyes and they were glazed over as if he was starring off into space. It was obvious that he had probably been awake for days. There was something else about him though, a thing that seemed to hover over him, pressing and pushing him down. Rose almost felt panicked by his appearance.

The Doctor placed his sonic screwdriver into the pocket of his worn and beaten leather jacket as he gave Rose a half-hearted smile. "Fantastic." He mumbled, trying to sound cheery, "It was hurting for a while but you're lucky because I heal fast so no permanent damage." He tried harder this time to smile, trying to make Rose feel better but it just made her feel worse.

"Look I'm sorry if I annoyed you back there. I didn't mean anything by it. I was only trying to make you laugh a bit." Rose sat down beside the Doctor at the other side of the opened panel, stretching out her legs in front of her and shifting about until she was sitting in a way which she felt most comfortable on the metal grated floor.

The Doctor looked over at her and this time his smile was genuine, "I know and I'm sorry to for snapping at you for no apparent reason Rose. I shouldn't have."

"To right you shouldn't have! You know I though to were cool but it turns out that you're just a boring old fart." Said Rose as she tried to keep a straight face.

"Oi! Watch what you say because remember I could just as easily take us to a planet with flesh-eating-slugs and kick you're skinny backside out of there and fly off without you." Said the Doctor smugly, laughing until Rose swatted him gently on the arm. "Uh…that hurt!" exclaimed the Doctor like he was a stropy teenager.

"Uh…I don't care!" Rose shot back sarcastically, "And anyway you wouldn't do that to me. You'd miss me too much." She punctuated her words with small jabs into his chest, which he returned, into her ribs making her jump. "Ouch!"

"Don't care!" jibed the Doctor. His smile spread so that it was almost stretched across his entire face. His eyes were filled with laughter and that thing that had appeared to hang over his head seemed to lift for a second or two, but eventually it transparent weight returned once more and his wonderful smile died away.

Rose couldn't stand this for much longer and finally spoke up, "What is it? What's wrong? You've been like this for about two days now." She looked at him intently as if trying to coax him into talking.

"Acting like what! Asked the Doctor, confused and a little hurt, but he didn't know why.

"I don't know. You've just been acting a little distracted and a bit uppity. What are you thinking about all the time that's making you like this?" Rose swung her legs over the edge of the open bit of grating and put her hand in his as a means of comfort should he need it to be.

The Doctor didn't have a clue about what to say. For so many years he had distanced himself from everything and everyone that he though he didn't need or would be better off without him in their life. Not by hiding away from the universe or becoming a recluse but by not talking to anyone anymore who knew things that he considered very personal. Unfortunately the thing that Rose was trying to get out of him was a very personal and frankly, and he hated to say so, a very domestic thing indeed.

Rose continued to look at him like a worried mother trying to get her shy son to speak up about something that had made him sad or scared but which he didn't want to talk about. The Doctor then resolved that this really was something that he would like to keep to himself, at least for the time being. "I…it's nothing Rose…really. I've just not been feeling very well. I haven't been getting much sleep either which I suppose has finally caught up with me." He gave Rose's hand a little squeeze as he tried to sound as sincere and as normal as possible but it wasn't fooling her for one second.

The young girl stared at the Time Lord for a little while as she bit at her lip sceptically before she spoke again, "Alright then. But if you really are tired then forget your thingy-ma-bobbers," Rose indicated all of the strange looking supposed tools that were scattered about the floor, "and go straight to your bed cause I'm not being held responsible if you crash land us right in the middle of an intergalactic war or somethin' _again_ like between those gigantic alien hedgehogs and grasshoppers were." Said Rose sarcastically.

"They were porcupines and praying mantises Rose and I didn't crash us into _that_ fight it was you wanting to go home and visit your mum," the Doctor shuddered, "and if it hadn't of been for Mickey the Idiot for playing that game then we would never have gotten you zapped to a planet being used as a soldier and I wouldn't of had to control you with remote control and a gung stuck to my head!" The Doctor looked at Rose with a raised eyebrow as she just rolled her eyes.

"Anyway I don't think that sleep has anything to do with it because even when you healthy and rested you still seem to manage perfectly fine in ending up in the wrong time, place and making us extremely late." It was the Doctor's turn now to give Rose a friendly swat on the arm.

"Now none of that was my fault again ta very much. Even though the TARDIS is a beautifully engineered and highly advanced ship, the old girl does have the slight tendency to miscalculate sometimes." The Doctor said, trying to shift the blame off of him. He made a mental note to apologise to the TARDIS later on when Rose wasn't around.

"Well whoever's fault it was it ain't of any importance now so just you toddle off now. Off to bed with you as it's nearly 7 o'clock, way past you bed time." Said Rose as she made a shoeing motion with her hand. The Doctor smiled and lent over to the young girl to give her a hug before he got up to his feet.

He began to make his way out when he turned round, "Would you come tuck me in and read me a bed time story Rosie?" he said in a mocking, child-like voice. He soon moved quick enough when Rose picked up a spare tool and launched it at him, laughing as it missed him by miles.

"Bugger off you annoying sod!" Rose shouted out through laughs.

The Doctor said good night and left the room, leaving behind the echo of his heavy Dr Martin boots bashing against the hard grating of the control room floor as he made his way up to his room.

Silence settled down over Rose like a blanket once more apart from the ever so gentle humming of the ship continued as it always did. Rose sat there for what could have been hours or simply a few minutes, it was always hard to tell in here. She finally decided to get up because her bum was beginning to go really numb and if she didn't get up now that she wouldn't be able to walk when she finally did.

Rose got up slowly, letting the blood flow back, and walked backwards and forwards to try and stop her from getting pins and needles. It took her a while to notice that the panel under the controls was still open and that the green glow was still coming from it. She got down on her knees so that she could see into it, curious about what was inside. Rose knew full well that she could never understand the purpose of all the wires, buttons and switches but it was nice to have a look and see what the TARDIS was made of.

The 19 year old sighed as she began to look away but then something hidden within the mass of wires and cables caught her eye. Rose couldn't make out what it was exactly because it was covered in wires and the light made it harder to see as well as sting her eyes a bit so she had to squint, but although her vision was slightly impaired Rose could clearly see that whatever it was wasn't part of the ship and had just been placed there by someone. Rose looked at the wires around the object just to make sure that she wouldn't blow anything up or destroy the universe completely if she tried to remove it.

Rose reached into the assortment of wires and flashing green lights but jumped back when suddenly the wires and cables parted and the object was unveiled. The green light had dimmed meaning that Rose could now see the strange object clear as day.

Placed there on a small shelf-like structure there was a wooden box. It amazed Rose that such a small and simple box would be kept inside a machine so humongous and complex, making it look so primitive and dwarfed. The green light blinked on and off as if the TARDIS herself was telling Rose to take it. Rose looked around the room and towards the door at the other side just to make sure that the Doctor wasn't around to see her take it.

With great care Rose took the box from it's hiding place and knelt down of the grated floor, holding the box in her hands and resting it on her lap. It was simply made but beautifully and well put together. Clearly whoever had made it had put much time, love, care and skill into it. The box was made out of Rosewood and the wood was well treated and it seemed like that whoever it belonged to cared for it very much and wanted to keep in good condition.

The most wonderful scent was coming from the box and it reminded Rose slightly of those smoky rooms of the Indian places that Mickey had taken her to over the year or so they had been going out. He had liked going to those places and always dragged her along with him. It wasn't that she minded and she did enjoy spending time with him. It was just that when you go for a curry nearly 4 to 5 times a week…it makes you eventually want to gag when you think of it. Rose was just glad that after a while he had moved onto something else but that did mean that she had been eating Chinese nearly every single night for weeks before she joined the Doctor.

The smell was like the Indian restaurants only it was sweeter, more pleasant and easier on the senses. It was so much like a sweet, spicy incense because it was warm and reminded Rose of Cinnamon, Cloves and Frankincense. The smell seemed to go well with the almost deep crimson red colour that was a characteristic of the most perfect and beautiful Rosewood.

There were no decorations or markings on the box apart from a small but strange symbol on the centre of the box's lid. It was a small circle with a figure of eight the was repeated 2 times within it's self as well as things that looked almost liked arms came out of each side of the figure of eights and went off in different directions and also they had a small ball at the ends. To Rose it seemed very much like something that you might find on Earth as it was very Celtic in it's design.

Rose concluded that it may have been a word or symbol from something back on the Doctor's planet as it was as alien to her as he and his ship or that it may just simply be there for decorative purposes only.

She ran her fingers over the symbol, letting them glide gently over the groves and as she did a faint glowing light came from the tiny space in between the lid and the under piece of the box. The next thing that Rose heard was the sound lick a key clicking as it turned around in a lock and the final loudest click, meaning that it was now open.

Rose put the box on the floor in front of her and lifted the lid off slowly. She had no idea what she would inside what she decided now was defiantly the Doctor's box. She had a fair idea of what might be in it such as things that reminded him of his home world along with maybe other gadgets and tools that where like his sonic screwdriver. Rose was actually surprised at what she found when she took away the lid enough so that she could see what was inside.

It was surprising to Rose because it seemed so…human. She had a box quiet like this hidden under her bed at home which had special pictures of her with her friends, ones of her mum and dad together as well as on their own along with little things like the specially made party menu that her mum had gotten made up for her 11th birthday. It was silly really but it was nice to look at it now and then, just to remember.

Now it was so obvious that this was the Doctor's own memory box as there were crumpled old envelopes dating back to the sixteen hundreds, a pressed red carnation and a dried cherry blossom flower that both seemed would crumble under her lightest touch. There were lots and lots of pictures that Rose guessed that the box's contents was mainly made up on pictures, there where that many of them. There were both pictures that were relatively new and also extremely old. Black and whites photos of dignified looking men and women, some smiling and some not, fuzzy colour ones that must have come from the 60's and 70's and there were even Polaroid's, many of them dated 2005 funnily enough.

Rose put her hand into the wide arrangement of age and colour and took out the Polaroid's, looking at the most recent first, shifting through them and gazing back at the people gazing back up at her from the pictures. There were quiet a few of the different men and women in them were round about Rose's age and just a little over and they where pictured in many different rooms and places such as smoky bars, night clubs along with in peoples kitchens and living rooms.

She stopped when she came to a Polaroid of the Doctor and a group of people all with drinks in their hands and making funny and stupid faces at the camera. Rose couldn't help but smile and laugh quietly to herself just looking at the picture. The Doctor seemed so…normal surrounded by these people who were surely friends he had made on one of his many visits to the many different points in the Earths vast history. He looked very happy among them all, his arms around the shoulders of a man and a woman by his sides, a beer bottle in his hand.

Rose smiled to herself again as she shifted through some more of the many photos. She stopped once again when she came across a picture of the Doctor with an affectionate arm around the shoulders of a young woman whose arm was around his waist.

The thing that struck Rose most about it was the fact that they looked like a proper couple who had been going out or known each other for ages. They seemed so natural together which was why it was strange because Rose had never ever thought of the Doctor as the kind of person who would go out with friends and have girlfriends and go out on dates but by the looks of this picture, he did.

Rose looked at the girl in the picture a little closer, The will be a good chance to find out what kind of girls the Doctor's into, thought Rose while chuckling to herself. The girl was very pretty, if Mickey were there she would probably be drooling over the picture by now.

She had shoulder length, blonde, shiny hair that was in two loose plaits with small wisps of hair coming loose around her eyes. Now her hair wasn't just blonde, it was almost platinum and it shone bright in the flash of the camera. The girl was smiling broadly, causing her cheeks to dimple slightly showing off their apple-like rosy colour. She was wearing what looked like black, horn-rimmed glasses that seemed to be sliding down her nose as she smiled at the camera.

Rose sat there for a second, just looking at the two of them when she was startled by the angry voice of the Doctor, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING ROSE?" he shouted as he walked to her, snatching up the pictures from the floor, picking up the box and continuing to shout when he stood up again, "HOW DARE YOU! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE GOING THROUGH ANYTHING IN HERE LET ALONE ANYTHING OF MINE!"

Rose still had the picture in her hand but she quickly stuffed it into her pocket while the Doctor was shouting. She tried to explain, "But the TAR-"

"I don't want to hear it Rose, I just don't want to hear your excuses. I would _never_ ever go around your personal things so what makes you think that you have the right to go through mine!" It was more of a statement rather than a question. Rose opened her mouth to speak again but her pleas fell on deaf ears as the Doctor marched angrily away from her, the box and pictures in hand, slamming every door behind him as he stormed off yet again.

Rose stayed where she was until the sound of slamming doors had stop and it was only then that she hung her head, her hair falling around her eyes and a few tears dripping onto her lap. She had known that the memory box had belonged to the Doctor but she had never thought about whether it had been him doing the same thing to her and how she would react. Rose knew that she probably would have through the nearest thing to her at him and screamed and shouted. In her option, Rose had gotten off lightly.

Rose wiped at her face and eyes, drying away the tears. This time she didn't know what to do. Before she had been sure that leaving him for a little while to cool off and then saying sorry was the right option but now she hadn't a clue. Rose knew that she had to say sorry and she wanted to as well. She just couldn't understand why he wouldn't tell her anything about who he was, what he had been on his home world, did he have any family. These where all things of the person who she considered her most best friend in the world and he kept pushing her out.

"Right," Rose said to herself, "I've seen his little trinket box and I've seen things he didn't want me to see and if that is the case then that's just tuff. It's time he answered a few questions."

The cool blanket of silence wrapped it's self around the TARDIS control room once more as the door swung closed behind Rose, the gentle humming had stopped.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Throughout all the years that the Doctor had been travelling on the TARDIS, not once had he ever changed his room. It had always been the same. It wasn't really just the one room but really several rooms all put together in a sort of house like way. He had never understood why humans liked to have just the one room to call their own. Those tiny, cramped places where they slept at night where frankly, by the Doctor's standards, there wasn't enough room to swing a cat.

The first room in the Doctor's private quarters was a rather small hallway that had lime green Victorian tiles going up the walls along with a black and white diamond tiled floor and at the other end coming into it there was a tall hat stand not unlike the one near the TARDIS front door but this one held a long, velvet, green frock coat, a walking cane, a gentleman's straw hat and an umbrella. They were both tokens from his last two regenerations.

Beyond the door at the other end of the hall there was a comfy looking sitting room with a grand marble fireplace. The room was fairly Georgian but it had remnants of Venice architecture due the red and gold curtains on the magnificent windows and beautiful chairs and coffee table that stood in front of the fire.

There were a series of doors that led out of the sitting room, there where three in total and they where all in a row beside each other. One led to the Doctor's library which held his person collection of books, the next was a grand study with a gigantic oak desk which had both an old fashioned typewriter and a flat-screen computer on it. And the third led into the Doctors bedroom where he slept very little as he hardly ever needed to sleep.

For those of you who might have noticed I said that the Doctors living quarters was made up of several rooms and that I only listed 5...well to those who noticed a well done and a pat on the back. The sixth room was an en-suite roman baths that connected directly to his room. The last room was what the Doctor liked to call The Closet. It was like a larger version of the box that he kept hidden under the controls and only he had ever seen the rooms' contents.

Ever since Gallifrey had been destroyed he had been very guarded, he knew it was because in that last fatal explosion that had ripped his planet to shreds, he knew that his wife, children and grandchildren where all dead and that they had never had a chance to save themselves. He hadn't given them that chance.

After that his relationship with Fitz had become strained leading to both him and Trix leaving to live on 21st century Earth. But after the Doctor had finally found out why he couldn't remember anything and after that things had managed to get back to normal.

It seemed that once again the relationship with another companion was being strained and tested by the Doctor's willingness to keep secrets. Although he had to say that if he had known more about his life when he was travelling with Fitz then he would have gladly told him, but it just to happened that he had removed most of his memories so that he could fit the entire history of Gallifrey into his head.

The sound of Billy Holiday's voice was coming from an old gramophone at the other side of the sitting room. The Doctor was sitting in darkness apart from the orange glow coming from the fire. It wasn't real fire but it set off the room nicely. On the coffee table in front of him was the box and the pictures scattered across it. I had been a very long time since the Doctor had looked anywhere near any of them and he just stared at the fire.

The Doctor had never met anyone as infuriating as Rose in his entire life. She always did the exact opposite of whatever he told her and she was always wandering off getting into trouble. There was only one other person that he could think of the out ran Rose by miles and that was Sabbath. Oh how the Doctor was glad that he would never have to see that smug and idiotic mans face ever again.

The Doctor was still in his own little world when he heard the softest of knocks come from his door. He sighed deeply, taking out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the door so that it would unlock it's self. He turned away from the door to look back at the fire again. The Doctor listened as Rose made her way into the room as if walking on eggshells.

Rose stood by the door for a long time before she walked towards the chair that the Doctor was sitting in. He could hear her fidgeting with the ring on her finger. There had been a time similar to this when Rose had saved her father's life and brought about the potential destruction of the world. At that time he had been quick to forgive when she said sorry because she was his best friend, and what was a planet in peril between friends.

But now…he wasn't sure if he could forgive her as quick.

When Rose spoke her voice seemed so meek and frail, as if she had been crying, "I'm sorry…I didn't mean it. My curiosity just got the better of me…" Rose inched her way forward, getting close to his turned back as she headed for the chair that sat opposite him on the other side of the coffee table.

Rose sat down with her legs crossed, still fiddling with the ring on her finger. It took her a while to actually look at him. He had never shouted at her like that before so she was a little apprehensive.

"Why…why did you do it Rose? You knew that it must have been mine and yet you still felt the need to open it up and go through my personal things." The Doctors voice was nothing like Rose had expected it to be. She thought that he would start shouting again and then throw her out of his room. His voice was calm and smooth but there was an under lying tone of anger coming through. It was intentional on the Doctors behalf. His sort of way of beginning to tell her off without screaming his lungs out within the first few seconds.

"Well, you've never told me anything about what you've done in the past, if you were married, had children, what your planet was like or things like that. You mean a lot more to me than just a friend Doctor and you know nearly everything about be because I've told you. That's what friends do; they share their lives with each other." Rose had been thinking up this for a while and had practised it all the way to his door so that she wouldn't stutter or stumble while saying it.

There was a pause, the Doctor looked at Rose and she looked right back. There was a thoughtful look about his face as if he was trying to think of some great and powerful answer to the worlds' most difficult question.

"I was married, once, and I had children. I also had grandchildren. I wouldn't say that I was the greatest father or grandfather or husband either. I was always travelling here and there, always far away from my family. I did love my family but, as my wife used to joke, I had better things to do." The Doctor's voice was barely even above a whisper and all trace of anger had disappeared. In turn it was replaced by the sound of sadness and regret

"You're…you're a grandfather?" Rose could hardly believe it. Yes she could think of him as being married and having very young children maybe but never a _grandfather._

"Yes. I know to you a grandfather would be a withered old man with grey hair and thin skin but it's different for my race. Since we have such long life spans we often see the birth of our great-great grandchildren. To us there isn't really old age there's just old in years but not in body." The Doctor laughed to himself quietly. It was just so ironic to him. "You know if you had waited I would have probably shown you all these pictures in time and told you everything you needed to know." he said very matter-o-factly.

For the first time since she had entered the room, Rose smiled softly, "Yeah? Well you know me, nosey to the last." Rose was so glad when her smile was returned.

The Doctor sat up in his chair and rested his chin on his hand, "Well if that's your apology then you can just go," he said hauntily.

Rose put her hands together as if begging and put on desperate voice, "Oh no don't kick me out I'm so so so sorry and I promise never to do it again." Rose could hardly stop herself from laughing and eventually she just broke out followed by the Doctor.

"Ah well I _suppose_ that I can forgive you just this once." said the Doctor, looking back down at the pictures again, thoughtfully.

A comfortable silence fell between them and the Doctor only looked up again when Rose took out the picture from her pocket and presented it to him. "Well if I'm now allowed to ask questions and not get my head bitten off, here's my first one. Who is she?"

The Doctor took the picture in his hands and stared at it with a small smile on his face, "To you this would have only been taken a few months ago at the New Year. To me…it was taken nearly 3 years ago. I was at a New Years party that Anji, an old companion of mine, had dragged me to. She introduced me to one of her friends from America. Her name was Emma-Lee Owens but everyone just called her Emma."

Chapter 3 is now being written, taken from the scary, twisted imagination of mine where the Doctor is my love bunny and the Dalek is just a fridge where I keep my ice cream and vodka lol. Please R&R


End file.
